a good light meter for film

[avr]

Hi I have an inexpensive light meter, it´s very hardly of use (dial tables) I´m looking to make a good investiment in a good light meter (spot, incident, easy to read and use...)

any suggestion?

thanks a lot

[steadicamsteel]

Hi,

I've got a sekonic 608C (the C stands for cine). Dead easy to use and some really good user functions. Had it for sometime now and have had no problems whatsoever.

[Kevin_Zanit]

I have a Sekonic 508C. I also keep a backup, the Sekonic Studio Delux (an old, but solid meter).

I love them both. My gaffer uses the newer Sekonic 558C, I like it also.

Kevin Zanit

[Barry_Green]

I've got a 508c, it's a nearly perfect little meter -- only thing is that I wish it had the f-stop readout in the spotmeter mode, actually in the spotmeter viewfinder. As I understand, the 608c added that feature, but changed away from the 'AA' battery of the 508c.

[Kevin_Zanit]

Correct, the 608 has it, as does the 558. They both have changed from the single AA.


Kevin Zanit

[thisiswells]

yeah, the new batteries are like $13 and we had a lot of fun trying to find one!

[esperman]

You can't beat a Sekonic! I've had mine since film school. Also, I've got a Gossen Mulitpro...which can spot and is great from low lux.

[amishjim]

I <3 my Spectra Combi500, just enough information to make me dangerous :D

[Michael Summers]

i use a sekonic L-398m

[Bruce Morgan]

the sekonic studio delux - no battery and as long as you can check it before purchase against a trusted meter -it will be good .
I use a minolta digital read out meter old and simple and takes aa batteries .
There are kits which turn this meter into spot meter.
the old spectras are wonderful but if they get hit or dropped they stop working and the repairs are not worth it .
Good Luck
Bruce

[Iain]

The Gossen Starlite. Durable, reliable, compact. Spot meter uses optical glass instead of plastic like the Sekonic.

The Studio Deluxe is good for footcandle measurement.

[Erik Olson]

Sekonic DigiLite F - a very basic f-stop meter against ISO / frame rate. Doesn't do lux or footcandles.

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[AlexGg]

If anybody can tell me what is way of practical using such device in normal filmmaking?
Sorry if it sounds for someone pretty silly...

[The Machinist]

Are you asking how to use one or why to use one when on set?

Sorry but the question is a bit hard to understand.

Ohh and I'll throw my lot in with the Sekonic 558

[AlexGg]

Sorry, I mean this: some age ago there was a photoCamera, which has only manual focus, exposure, and something else. So, for doing right shot everybody has some luxmeter or similar devices. By directing them on the object of shot I did read some
value and then by some table I have change the value of exposure on the camera... So based on this I can get pretty right picture.
Now, I am asking about that stuff you are mentioned, and I am wondering how to use its values which was measured?
Or if this is not clear, tell me in this way: step-by-step how you guys uses this meters, from opening up to shooting.

[The Machinist]

Ahh gotcha.

Well basically the Light meter tells you the F-stop to shoot at for your ISO. You set the ISO on the light meter, take a reading of your subject and then using a sort of conversion chart on the light meter you can find out the F-stop to properly expose your film. The Digital Light meters do most of this for you but this is a crude description of how the sekonic i learned on operated.

Perhaps someone would like to offer a more detailed lesson on light meter use for our friend and others. Something with pictures?

[AlexGg]

Ok, so the Light meter tells me just the F-stop to particular shoot.

That's all or something else I can get from it?

[The Machinist]

Yea it tells you the F-stop so your film is properly exposed.

I was trolling around the net and came across this article.

http://www.power-of-lighting.com/article06.html

At a glance it seems to be a fairly decent explanation of why light meters are used and perhaps why it might be advantageous for a videographer to be knowledgable in their use.

[AlexGg]

Thanks a lot!!!!

[Christian]

thats interesting, everybody seems to be using Sekonic here.

I am using an rather old and analog Sekonic Lightmeter and a Pentax Digital Spotmeter, that turned out to be very reliable and solid.

I just skimed through that article and found the last part to be a very good advice: Shooting on Slidefilm for learning purposes. Just grap a camera, a slide film and a Meter and make some series of pictures with different F-Stops/Shutterspeed settings. The result is very educating :thumbsup:

[The Machinist]

I still have an old analog Sekonic also. It's my never fail backup.

[PDX_DVX]

I picked up a sekonic analog meter the other day for 40 bucks and it included the lumisphere, lumidisk and lumigrid and a case. Seems to work ok, although doesn't do so great unless there's a lot of light, but maybe mines broken?